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It’s as daft as a whole cupboardful of brushes, but Whitechapel is so cleverly done - however dumb its gleefully gory stories, they are always well filmed and nattily edited - that it’s difficult not to get caught up in the eerie atmosphere.

As a new story begins, a motorcyclist finds a dismembered arm. When Detective Inspector Chandler and his team investigate, they discover that the limb has been scavenged by a fox. So presumably the rest of the body is lying somewhere in the capital’s gloomy netherworld of reeking dark alleyways and badly lit, threatening snickets.

Of course, there has to be a parallel with a particular historical serial killing, and nerdy expert Edward Buchan sees similarities to the Thames Torso Murders. It’s barmy, but the episode is lifted by Barbara Marten as a Miss Havisham-type woman with a hoarding problem.

About this programme

3/6. Part one of two. Chandler and the team attend the christening of Miles' daughter, but soon find themselves dealing with a murder case when a fox runs through Whitechapel with a human arm in its mouth. More body parts from the same person are washed up from the Thames, but the detectives struggle to identify the victim. Starring Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis and Steve Pemberton.